2025 Oscar-Nominated Shorts - Live Action

Tropic Sprockets by Ian Brockway

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This year’s group of live action short films, a kaleidoscopic and diverse selection running the gambit of tension and pathos, are a decidedly downbeat crop, but the five films still remain excellent. They are a reflection of our current turbulent condition and create a necessary call to awareness. 

First, from Croatia, the drama film written and directed by Nebojša Slijepčević, “The Man who Could Not Remain Silent,” focuses on the war in Bosnia in 1993. A traveling family is stopped on a train and ruthlessly interrogated. The family is repeatedly disrespected and belittled in front of young children. The father speaks up and resists. 

This tight and percussive film has a palpable danger and tension that builds and builds creating more questions with every glance and every scene. Like a Zen koan, the audience’s emotions are stripped away to a place beyond reaction. There is only a sense of the present, of a state of acceptance and haunt.

“Anuja” by Adam J. Graves is the story of two sisters who work in a sweat shop in India. Anuja (Sajda Pathan) is 9 years old. She is called to the office. A prep school recruiter tells the girl she has academic talents and should take an entrance exam. Anuja is discouraged thinking she has no money. 

Through her sister she gets the idea of selling handbags. Utilizing social realism reminiscent of Roberto Rossellini, this is a naturalistic study of childhood and the meanness of child labor, which in this case at least, yields to the better of human spirits.

“I Am Not a Robot” by Victoria Warmerdam (a favorite of the group) keeps one guessing from start to finish. An office worker (Ellen Parren) is continually prevented from working online when she keeps failing simple login tasks. Customer Service via phone informs her that she is most likely a companion robot. The woman is flabbergasted and physically sickened by the judgment. Surely there must be some mistake. The woman has emotions, desires, and an ego.

Then the woman’s husband ignores her, all but affirming that this is in fact true. 

Ellen Parren is terrific as an earnest and direct woman desperate to be independent, desperate to prove that she is worthy and equal to a mortal woman. The film makes a perfect visual appetizer to the film “Companion” also playing at The Tropic.

“A Lien” by directors Sam and David Cutler-Kreutz is an absolute heart wrenching study in panic and anguish.

Oscar and Sophia Gomez (William Martinez and Victoria Ratermanis) are a young couple attempting the green card process in 2025. Sophia is American while Oscar was born in El Salvador. They have a daughter. In just a few short scenes we are given all we need to know. This is a family that conducts itself with love and they are determined to go through all the legal channels necessary to be productive and responsible.

All appears smooth. Suddenly outside the interview, an altercation arises. ICE is summoned. Oscar grows increasingly nervous along with the audience and begins to exit the room at a run, convinced he is going to be caught in the altercation or worse, arrested. Sophia is also understandably hysterical. The officers overreact and pandemonium ensues.

The heartsickness that this situation produces is almost unbearable in its authenticity and second to none.

Finally, “The Last Ranger” by Cindy Lee focuses on a South African game reserve during the pandemic. Kushelwa (Avumile Qongqo) is a dominant female ranger who protects the animals with her very life. Litha (Liyabona Mroqoza) is her protege, a young idealist boy. Day after day, hour after hour, the two wait. One day the pair gets more than expected. A young white rhino is under attack by poachers. As in the previously mentioned short, the sadness is palpable and gut-wrenching. Litha understandably has “Death Wish” Charles Bronson like pain. He is gripped with a sad and infinite injustice.

While the film is no joyful sojourn and nearly reaches the tear-drenched sadness of “Old Yeller” (1957), the film ultimately underscores the persistence and the loving guardianship of these resilient rangers who are true superheroes undefined by their environment or gender. 

Yes, this 2025 selection is sobering stuff and not easy on the eyes, but each short is a first-rate study, lighting the path to awareness, vigilance, and proactive empathy. 

Write Ian at ianfree11@yahoo.com